he Bible contains no express and
unqualified prohibition of war; neither can such prohibition be said
to be intimated or implied in any text or in the general tenor of
Scripture, without making it subversive, at the same time, of civil
government. Besides, I remember that the first person not a Jew, in
whose favor our Lord wrought a miracle, was a Roman centurion; and
that the first person not a Jew admitted into the Christian church,
was also a Roman centurion; and not a syllable is said against their
calling, neither is there a shadow of evidence that they ever changed
it. Undoubtedly it is the legitimate and certain tendency of the
spirit of the gospel, as it is more and more diffused in the world, to
introduce universal peace; but the spirit of the gospel acts from
within outwardly, and not from without inwardly. Thus the stop to be
put to war is to be expected, not so much by chaining down those
irrepressible instincts which lead men to resist wrong, as by
eradicating the disposition to do wrong. Wars will cease when all men
are Christians, and perfect Christians; but this will not be to-day
nor to-morrow.

Accordingly, I am not surprised that the call to arms has been
responded to with such enthusiasm,--or that it is sustained by the
whole moral and religious sentiment of the community. Men are ready to
offer up not only their money and their labor, but also their lives.
Are you afraid that your sons and brothers will be cowards merely
because they are not duelists? because they have never been engaged in
a street-fight? because prayers were made at their departure? or
because they have carried their bibles with them? Did Cromwell's
soldiers flee before the cavaliers because they were sober and
God-fearing men? Our people have no love for fighting, as a pastime;
let it, however, become a serious business, and they will show that
their veins are full of the blood that flowed so freely in other days.

These are some of the ways in which a people may manifest their public
spirit, and in which our people are manifesting it now. "With such
sacrifices God is well pleased." I have given a definition of public
spirit from the jurists, but I like still better the Bible definition.
In the words of the prophet, "They helped every one his neighbor, and
every one said to his brother, Be of good courage."

In looking back on what has been said, I find I have not spoken
against anybody, not even against our enemies. Perhaps w